Photo: 123rf.com
A man who was seriously ill with cancer and underwent a bone marrow transplant at Auckland City Hospital last year had to boil water in a kettle and use a disposable vomit bowl to wash themselves, because the ward had no running hot water.
Health New Zealand (HNZ) confirmed it became aware of water heating and pressure issues in the support building in 2023, and a partial replacement of the heating plant in mid-2024 "did not meet expectations" - meaning that while hot running water was now available, intermittent issues were ongoing.
A number of water leaks at Auckland hospitals have occurred recently, including a water outage at Auckland City hospital in January, and a power outage at the Greenlane Clinical Centre last week after a water leak damaged circuit boards
Andrew Mackintosh, who had lymphoma, was staying in Auckland City Hospital's hematology ward for five weeks in September last year as he underwent a bone marrow transplant.
The ward is part of a 45,000 sqm facility built in stages between 1965 and 1971, and has a range of ageing infrastructure issues.
Mackintosh said cleanliness was critical to patients like him who are severely immunocompromised and prone to infections that would increase the risks of dying during the process.
He had a private bathroom in his room, and the bedsheets had to be changed daily.
The low pressure of the water that a cancer patient was left with at Auckland City Hospital. Photo: Supplied
Mackintosh said the shower was not working and there was no running hot water 90 percent of the time.
"The water was very, very low pressure like a trickle going down the handle as opposed to a shower spray coming out of the shower, and it was nearly always cold, so even if it had been warm the flow wasn't enough to wash under," he said.
Mackintosh said he had to resort to filling disposable vomit containers with kettle-boiled water, then washing with a cloth.
He said it was a struggle to wash in this way in his weakened state.
"Every day it would be a task that I would dread coming in the day, it was just a real undertaking to go through it physically, so that was the starting point, but then I had the anxiety around the fact that i wasn't doing a good enough job [washing] and worrying that it would be a real negative impact on my situation," he said.
Mackintosh said the nurses provided good care for him, but were helpless to fix the water problem.
He said the hot water supply was also intermittent when he was staying in the same ward at Auckland City Hospital for chemotherapy in late 2023.
Mackintosh said he was angry and frustrated, and has heard that other bone marrow transplant patients also had similar challenges with water at the hospital.
"If it had been a short isolated thing and it was just me, I could accept that, but the fact that patients today will be going in to that same room, or that same set of rooms, and having the same problems that I grappled with.
"And having their very expensive, very difficult bone marrow transplant process put at risk because of such a simple thing as not providing suitable hot water, it just seems a crazy thing to be doing, a crazy thing to be allowing to continue for so long," he said.
HNZ spokesperson Chris Cardwell said in a statement that he acknowledged the patient's experience and accepted that "we did not deliver the quality of care we aspire to".
"We recognise patient hygiene is an integral part of patient care, and at times this has been challenging due to water related issues," he said.
Cardwell said when HNZ became aware of the water heating and pressure issues in 2023, it triggered investigations and "critical planned maintenance and investment" work was carried out, including the partial replacement of the heating plant in mid-2024.
"The project work did not fully meet expectations meaning that remedial work to resolve water pressure issues is ongoing," he said.
Cardwell said while maintenance work continued, there were contingencies in place to minimise disruptions to patients.
"We endeavour to relocate patients within the ward, where possible, or offer alternate shower facilities," he said.
Other water network issues at Auckland City Hospital
On 29 January, a water outage in the hospital's main building - building 32 - for more than 12 hours affected the hospital's emergency department, inpatient wards, operating theatres, Starship Children's hospital's emergency department and cardiac ward.
Cardwell said the shutdown was because of a "pipe fracturing and an absence of control valves".
He said there have been no further leaks in building 32 throughout February.
The risks with the pipes were identified in mid-2022, and were at the time managed through "reactive maintenance processes", said Cardwell.
He said a detailed independent engineering review followed and a report was produced in mid-2023, recommending the investigation of long term solutions.
"With incidents occurring more frequently in 2024, we sought concept designs and independent costings of options for phased remediation works," he said.
Cardwell said there were a number of minor leaks throughout 2024, with one major leak occurring in July 2024 - but would not confirm how many leaks had happened.
He said leaks would have occurred in numerous locations across the hospital, and that RNZ would need to send an official information request to find out the number.
On 18 February, Health Minister Simeon Brown announced $14 million of funding to replace Auckland City Hospital's pipes which are more than two decades old.
The minister said the project will take place over three phases, with the first phase expected to take over 13 months.
Cardwell said the tender for the remediation works went live on 21 February and closed on 7 March.
HNZ is expecting the works to begin in late April.
HNZ confirmed that the $14 million is a reallocation of funding from the existing budget within the "facilities infrastructure remediation programme", and will cover just the first phase of the works, while future funding of the project will need to be reviewed after completion of the first phase.
Brown said he will consider advice on the future funding of the project in due course.
HNZ said it was looking at an alternative temporary water supply during this project.
Cardwell said at this stage, HNZ was not expecting any surgeries to be delayed or relocated as a result of repair works.
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